Man given 6.5 years in highway hit-and-run death of motorcyclist

A Chilliwack man has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to four charges in connection with a collision that killed a Maple Ridge motorcyclist in 2017.

Laura Jeglum-Woycheshen, a 48-year-old Maple Ridge mother and grandmother, riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, died in the head-on collision on Sept. 14 of that year. She was riding on Lougheed Highway, near 280th Street, with a group of friends, on her way back from dinner when the collision occurred.

Ryan Gerald Lowe pleaded guilty in October to charges of impaired driving causing death, impaired driving causing bodily harm to two others – failing to stop at the scene of an accident and public mischief for reporting a theft of a vehicle, when none had occurred.

He was sentenced Thursday in Port Coquitlam provincial court.

Lowe was given five years for driving causing death and another for driving causing bodily harm, as well as three more for leaving the scene and mischief.

The first two sentences are concurrent, while the last two are consecutive for a total of eight years.

Justice Patricia Janzen, however, reduced the total sentence to 6.5 years.

Lowe, from Chilliwack and born in 1984, initially faced eight charges. He pleaded guilty to four.